Probably going to slow down for a while after the 2000 or 2001 thread, since life's about to get extra busy again, but here goes. 2000 -- not a great year; I don't feel terribly strongly about most of the top 10 this year. This is the last year that Renée Zellweger was watchable, I think. This is also the year that those everyone-is-connected dramas rose from novelty to ubiquity. This is the year that put Chris Nolan and Darren Aronofsky on the map, and the year of Ken Lonergan's excellent debut which would be followed up with the troubled Margaret. This was the year that David Gordon Green became a name in American independent cinema; little would anyone have guessed that he would go on to become a name in crass stoner comedies. This is the year of Joel Schumacher's best film, allowing us to hope that his career might rebound from Batman; he has instead gone on to continuing mediocrity. This is the year that Tarsem gave us the flawed but visually incredible The Cell; he would go on to make one excellent movie before moving on to some crappy but pretty stuff. This is the year that Kim Ki-duk produced his single most painful visual in an entire career of uncomfortable films. And this is the year of the improbably amusing Greenfingers.

In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai)

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (The Coen Brothers)

You Can Count on Me (Kenneth Lonergan)

Billy Elliot (Stephen Daldry)

Memento (Christopher Nolan)

Devils on the Doorstep (Jiang Wen)

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee)

Wonder Boys (Curtis Hanson)

Amores Perros (Alejandro González Iñárritu)

Divided We Fall (Jan Hrebejk)

Runners-up: Almost Famous, Yi Yi, J.S.A., Ali Zaoua: Prince of the Streets, George Washington, Best in Show, Together

Some others: Bread and Tulips, The Day I Became A Woman, High Fidelity, Requeim for a Dream, Traffic, Barking Dogs Never Bite, Princess and the Warrior, Chicken Run, Escaflowne, Happy Times, Sexy Beast, Tigerland, Dancer in the Dark, The Price of Milk, Nure Betty, Girlfight, The Circle, Pollock, The Circle, Ginger Snaps, Shadow of the Vampire, Gladiator, Battle Royale, Greenfingers, The Isle, American Psycho, The Cell

So what are your favorites of the year? What have I missed? What should I check out?